by Jeffrey Spencer | Jul 6, 2025 | Sermons |
CLICK HERE for a worship video for July 6
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – July 6, 2025
Isaiah 66:10-14, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
In our gospel reading for today we hear Jesus sending seventy of his followers out into the world with a mission. He sends them out in pairs to every town and every place he intended to go. Jesus sends these followers out to proclaim peace, to proclaim that in him the kingdom of God has come near. “Whatever house you enter, Jesus tells them, “say, ‘Peace be to this house.’” This might sound like he’s merely encouraging them to be polite, to mind their manners, but it is so much more than that. These are words of blessing. This is a proclamation. It is a word that does something. It is a blessing of peace: peace with God, the peace beyond all understanding, the peace that the world cannot provide, the peace only Christ can give, the peace that comes from being restored to right relationship with God.
This blessing of peace foreshadows the peace the risen Lord Jesus will bestow upon the disciples as he appeared to them saying, “Peace be with you, peace be with you.” This peace is not the absence of trouble. It is the presence of Christ, which brings comfort and hope.
Jesus also tells his disciples to proclaim to people that the kingdom of God has come near to them. In Jesus Christ, God is bringing people close. God is holding them near. Jesus sends the seventy out to those who need to receive this blessing the most: the sick, the vulnerable, those who are isolated and alone and suffering.
Jesus sends them out to tell them that the kingdom of God has come near, bringing healing and wholeness and restoration to body and soul.
At the risk of using imagery which may be awkward for some, I see a connection between this word Jesus has given his followers to proclaim and the picture of God’s comfort we have in our first reading for today, from Isaiah. I was warned by a lectionary podcast I listened to this week to avoid having that passage read by an immature lector, who might have a hard time not snickering about “drinking deeply with delight from God’s glorious bosom.” It is startling language, to be sure, funny only because it is so unexpectedly earthy. But the image is a beautiful one. It shouldn’t be awkward, because this God’s own design for how babies are fed. Nursing mothers are image-bearers, reflecting God’s nature. God uses this imagery to describe how he will comfort his people.
God promises to comfort his people as a mother nurses her infant. God promises to restore Jerusalem in such a way that those who currently mourn may come to her consoling breast, drinking deeply with delight from the glorious bosom God provides. They shall nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knee. This is a picture of the kingdom of God drawing near. This is God at work to bring his people close. As God says, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
This imagery is especially vivid for me because last week we went up to Bellingham for a Bellingham Bells baseball game, and seated below us was a mom with twin infants. They couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. Those babies were being passed around, held by dad, held by what looked to be grandparents, held by friends. (I was hoping to get a turn, but they didn’t offer.)
There was all the chaos of a baseball game in progress: the cheering, the taunting of batters, the criticism of the umpires, the obnoxious yelling of college students who were in a few beers deep. Over the course of nine long innings, there were times when those babies started to get ornery and out-of-sorts. Maybe they were startled by the noise. Maybe they were tired. Maybe they were hungry.
When they started to cry or fuss, they would inevitably get handed back to mom. And this mom welcomed it. She pulled them close and, one at a time, discretely began to nurse them right there in the stands. Their little bodies melted into her. When they eventually unlatched from her consoling breast, all was right with their world. You could see it on their little faces. Their eyes were glassy with contentment, rolling back in their heads in utter bliss. They were now at peace.
This got my wife and I to reminiscing about when she was nursing. There were times when she would go to the grocery store with all three of our boys when our youngest was an infant and his brothers were four and two and a half. When the newborn would start to get fussy, she would scoop him up out of his carrier, hold him close, and discretely nurse him while walking down the aisle. She would hold him with one arm while pushing the cart with one free hand while two toddlers bounced around at her knees! Within moments, he would be consoled, at peace.
I mention this in part to gratuitously brag on my wife a little, who was and is an incredible mom, but I mention it even more to draw out this imagery from Isaiah, where God is described as being able to juggle a whole people, nursing them, keeping them all close, drawing them near in order to console them, giving them comfort, giving them peace.
Jesus sent these seventy followers out to announce that God had come to draw people in close. Jesus sent them out to proclaim peace, especially to those who were vulnerable or suffering. He sent them out to proclaim that in him, the kingdom of God had come near. Jesus sent them out to bring people into God’s comforting embrace, there to drink deeply with delight of God’s glorious love and grace.
This is still the mission of the Christian church. The mission we hear about in our gospel reading for today foreshadows the mission Christ gave to the church after his death and resurrection, when he called his disciples to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin to all people. All of this foreshadows the Great Commission Jesus gave to the church, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that he has commanded us. All of this foreshadows our task and calling as Christ’s people here today. We too are sent out to proclaim the peace of God. We too are sent out to proclaim that in Jesus, the kingdom of God has come near.
I wish this were as easy as handing hungry babies to their mother, but of course it isn’t. Jesus is honest about this. He tells us he is sending us out as sheep in the midst of wolves. There will be dangers. There will be those who snarl and bite at us. This remains true. There are places in the world at this very moment where it is dangerous to be a Christian, places where proclaiming the gospel will get you killed. Jesus tells us that we can expect rejection. He is honest about the fact that not everyone will receive us or our message. Jesus tells us that when this happens, to just shake it off and move on. He tells us not to take it personally. “When they reject you,” he tells us, “they are really rejecting me.”
But there will be successes too. There will be those who receive this peace. There will be those who will joyfully receive the good news that in Christ the kingdom of God has come near to them. There will be those who drink deeply with delight of the gospel. After all, the seventy returned with joy, didn’t they? They shared with Jesus how demons submitted to them. Jesus rejoiced that so many had been freed from Satan’s grip. Jesus affirmed that they had an authority from his word which was more powerful than snakes and scorpions, which are symbols for sin and death. Jesus affirmed that his word gave them authority over the power of the enemy.
This was something to celebrate, to be sure, but even better, Jesus reminds them, is that their names were written in heaven. Even better is that the seventy themselves had been brought close to God – not by their works, not by their efforts, but through Christ, who had not only called them but claimed them. He himself had written their names in heaven.
Our mission today, collectively as the church and individually as Christians, is to share the blessing of Christ’s peace with others. We are sent out to announce that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God has drawn near. We are not sent out to build the kingdom, but to proclaim that through faith in Jesus Christ, it is already here! It is not our works which establish the kingdom, but Christ’s work of dying and rising for us for the forgiveness of our sin. We are sent out to proclaim this. We are sent out with a message, with an authoritative and powerful word, a word that can overcome sin and death and the power of the enemy. This word is powerful and authoritative because it comes from Jesus. “Whoever listens to you,” Jesus says, “listens to me.”
Whoever listens to the word Jesus has given to the church listens to Christ himself.
So listen to this and hear Jesus speaking directly to you: Peace be with you. Whatever is going on in your life to trouble you or make you afraid, it is no match for Jesus. He has stomped out every snake and scorpion, so that you might have peace. Hear this too: The kingdom of God has come near to you. In Jesus Christ, God has come near to all of us. In word and in bread and in wine, God pulls you in close, giving you forgiveness, giving you consolation, giving you comfort.
Drink deeply with delight from God’s glorious grace today, brothers and sisters. Know that your names are written in heaven. And then let us go out like the seventy to all those anxious, ornery, hungry, vulnerable, and suffering souls to share with them the good news that there is a place at God’s glorious bosom for them too; for in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God has come near.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
by Jeffrey Spencer | Jul 1, 2025 | Sermons |
CLICK HERE for a worship video for June 29
Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost – June 29, 2025
1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21, Galatians 5:1, 13-29, Luke 9:51-62
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” Harsh? Perhaps. But it seems to be a sentiment shared by our Lord Jesus.
Today we hear two people respond to Jesus’ call to follow him with excuses. They don’t say no, but they say, “not yet.” They give Jesus excuses for why they cannot start following him right away.
To be fair, they are really good excuses! The first one said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” This is an awfully good excuse! You could make a case from scripture itself that it is a righteous request. We don’t know if the man’s father was already deceased and his funeral was pending, or if he was elderly and in need of care, but either way, this becomes his excuse for not following Jesus. And it’s a good one!
But to Jesus, even a good excuse is no excuse. And so Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
The next person responded to Jesus’ call to follow by saying, “I will follow you, Lord!” But he too had an excuse for why he couldn’t do it just then. He had some business to take care of first. “First let me say farewell to my home,” he said. This too is a good excuse! It seems like an entirely reasonable request. The lectionary reminds us this morning that there is even Biblical precedent for it. As we heard in the reading from 1 Kings, when the prophet Elijah called Elisha to follow him, Elisha asked if he could go home and kiss his mother and father first, and Elijah allowed it!
Is Jesus more demanding than Elijah? It sure sounds like it! In response, Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” This sounds an awful lot like Franklin’s quote: “Those who are good at making excuses are seldom good at anything else.” His excuse, reasonable as it might sound, made him unfit. Jesus couldn’t use him.
There will be no looking back, Jesus is saying. There will be no “not yet.” Jesus will not be penciled in on our calendars. He won’t be patronized like that. Following him will not be a hobby to be fit in when it is convenient, when it fits into our schedules. It will demand one’s whole life. There will be no excuses, not even good ones, when it comes to following him.
Does this mean we should neglect or abandon our families for the sake of the gospel? Absolutely not. The Lord God established the family and cares about it deeply. Two of the Ten Commandments concern the family: The Fourth seeks to protect and preserve the family by honoring mothers and fathers, while the Sixth seeks to protect and preserve the estate of marriage.
The issue here is the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” The issue here is not letting anything else, even good things, become more important than God. Jesus is making a First Commandment claim about himself here, demanding that we have no other gods before him. This is actually for our benefit. It is actually for the good of our families! We serve our families best when we put Christ first.
If you have ever been on a plane with kids, you know that the flight attendant tells everyone that if the plane loses cabin pressure, the adults should secure their oxygen masks first before putting one on their child. This is not a selfish act. It is simply the case that you are no help to your child if you are slumped over in your seat from lack of oxygen! In the same way, we need to put Christ first. We need to first breath Christ in so that we can be filled with his life and love, and in so doing have something to share with our families and friends.
In our gospel reading last week we heard how Jesus cast demons out of the man in Gerasa. When he was at last clothed and in his right might, the man said he wanted to follow Jesus. I find it very interesting that in this case Jesus instead sent him home! “Return to your home,” Jesus said, “and declare how much God has done for you.” His ministry was in his home. He would follow Jesus by serving him there. This is the case for many of us. Perhaps most of us.
Jesus’ concern in our gospel reading for today is how even good and godly things can come to take first place in our lives, the place the First Commandment reserves for God alone. There are no excuses, Jesus says, not even good ones, for not putting him first. There are no excuses for not responding to his call with immediate trust and obedience.
Sometimes we are like those Christians in Galatia Paul is writing to who have somehow gotten the idea that Christian freedom means freedom to answer Jesus’ call on our own terms, to shape and mold his call to fit our own thoughts and desires, to fit it in according to our own priorities and schedules. Not only does Paul say otherwise – Jesus does too. Jesus tells these would-be disciples that following him will involve a radical reordering of their lives. He tells them, and us, that he sets the terms, not us. If we are going to follow him, we need to put him above everything else – even those things we cherish the most.
The truth is, we all have our excuses. Even those of us who have said yes to following Jesus have our excuses as to why we might not be able to follow him in this area of our life, or on that day of the week. You are here today because you have been called to follow him, and probably all of you are eager to do so. But we all have our excuses, right? I know I do. And I’m in good company, because you know who else did? Every single one of the disciples! Peter ended up denying Jesus because he was afraid. Thomas doubted Jesus had risen because he had not seen him with his own eyes. All the disciples failed Jesus at some point, and they all had their excuses.
The Good News for us would-be followers of Jesus is found by reading between the lines of our gospel reading for today. The context here matters very much. The demands Jesus makes of his followers are not the only thing we hear today.
St. Luke tells us in this gospel reading that “Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem.” Luke tells us this twice in three verses! The language and the repetition here is drawing our attention to it. This is more than just stage direction. This is significant! Luke is telling us that Jesus was now resolutely headed to the cross. That’s what it means when he tells us “Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem.”
In the end no one was willing to follow Jesus to the cross. Everyone had an excuse. But “Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem.” He set his face towards the cross. Jesus went there for the sake of the Samaritans who said no to him. Jesus went there for the would-be followers who said “not yet” to him. Jesus went there for the disciples, who all had their excuses. Jesus went there for you and he went there for me. And in dying on the cross for us and rising again, Jesus has established a new covenant with us. He has made us fit for the Kingdom of God. He has established a new relationship with him based on grace, which we enter into through faith in him – by simply trusting in him and what he has done for us. In spite of our excuses, in spite of our failures, through his sacrifice for us in Jerusalem, we now belong to him.
And because we belong to him, we no longer live “by the flesh,” as the Apostle Paul puts it. “The flesh” is New Testament shorthand for our human nature, our standard operating system as fallen human begins. We no longer live according to the flesh. Instead we live by the Spirit.
Left to ourselves we will never follow Jesus. There will always be excuses. But when Christ’s Spirit goes to work on us, we begin to set aside those excuses and joyfully give ourselves over to a life of discipleship. When Christ’s Spirit goes to work on us, we find ourselves breathing him in and then pouring ourselves out in loving service to others, including our families, our neighbors, and those who are in need, near and far.
Another quote, not from Ben Franklin. You’ve probably heard it before. The quote is: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
This quote often hits our ears as a warning. It warns us to not get so caught up in the future that we put off or ignore what is important or precious today.
It sometimes hits our ears as a judgement. It convicts us of all the times we have let life pass us by because we were focusing on what is coming next rather than what is right in front of us.
It can also be heard, however, as an invitation. It can be heard as an invitation to lean into the present, to live the life we have been given with intentionality and gratitude.
We can hear these words of Jesus in all these ways too. These words of Jesus warn us that there are no excuses for not responding to his call with immediate trust and obedience. These words judge us. They convict us for all the excuses we have already made to avoid following him at certain times or in certain ways.
But in light of the forgiveness and new life he has won for us by setting his face towards Jerusalem, they can also be heard as an invitation. In light of his death and resurrection and the forgiveness he has won for us, we can hear these words as a renewed call to follow him. Christ alone makes us fit for the kingdom of God, and by his grace he is inviting us once again into this new life guided and empowered by his Spirit, a life where he comes first – not at the expense of others, but for their benefit.
The Christian life is not something we can pencil in for later. It is not something we can put off until it is more convenient for us. There are no excuses. The Christian life is lived now. Following Jesus starts now.
What could possibly be more important than this? Why would we want to wait?
Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
